Evidence
8 evidence entries recorded; each entry has a stable permalink (#ev-1 … #ev-8).
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[1]research packet lk-packet.md (3 sources cited) [other_primary]
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- Identity packet verdict: VERIFIED — real identity: USS **Marsh** (DE-699)
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Evidence ID
- uss-marsh-de699-pkt-lk-packet-md
-
[2]DANFS, Marsh (DE-699) (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. IV, pp. 250-51; verbatim hazegray DANFS transcription via losthistory.net mirror - live NHHC page returns 404 on all current and legacy URL patterns; hazegray.org itself does not resolve) [nhhc_danfs]
- Locator
- DANFS entry 'Marsh' - namesake biography, spec block, service narrative (Vol. IV pp. 250-51)
- Finding type
- vessel_history
- Finding
- DANFS record for this hull: laid down 23 June 1943 by Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, Mich.; launched 25 September 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Ben R. Marsh (mother of Ensign Marsh); commissioned 12 January 1944, Lt. Comdr. P. M. Fenton in command. Spec block: Buckley class, 1,400 t, 306 ft, 36 ft 10 in beam, 13 ft 6 in draft, 23.6 kt, complement 186, 3x3in + 4x1.1in + 6x40mm + 10x20mm + 3x21in tt + 2 dct + 8 dcp + 1 dcp (hh). Service: Bermuda shakedown; first transatlantic convoy NY-Plymouth 25 March 1944; three Atlantic/North Africa convoy runs; Mediterranean from 9 July 1944 (North Africa-Malta-southern Italy convoys); sailed from Naples 14 August 1944 with the Anvil assault forces (southern France invasion) - gunfire support and supply convoying for a month; Pacific reassignment via Mers-el-Kebir 28 September and Panama Canal mid-October; Eniwetok 20 December 1944; five months escorting convoys to Guam, Saipan, Ulithi, and Iwo Jima; May 1945 onward Northern Marianas pacification as flagship of the Northern Marianas Expeditionary Force (Japanese/Okinawan-language surrender broadcasts, prisoner pickups, escorted landing parties, gunfire support, weather-station/beacon setup); detached 11 August 1945 to Okinawa, then Marianas and Tokyo; Pearl Harbor 24 September 1945 where she 'took on equipment which transformed her into a mobile power unit'; Guam 20 October providing ship-to-shore power through year's end; U.S. shipyard overhaul at San Pedro early 1946; Kwajalein island power May-September 1946; then Tsingtao and Fusan, Korea, supporting U.S. policy in China and the Korea occupation zone; homeport Pearl Harbor from 31 March 1947; Korea 1950-51 as ship-to-shore power unit (Yokosuka 7 Sep 1950; Pusan power from 14 Sep; Inchon Harbor 9 October; Masan from 9 November; Pusan for the remainder), crew credited fighting the 8 February 1951 Army gasoline-dump fire at Pusan; Fleet Sonar School San Diego to April 1952; Korean battleline again 15 May 1952 - Sochon-Do patrol, carrier screen with Bataan and HMS Ocean in the Yellow Sea, Formosa patrol July, east-coast blockade and Songin/Wonsan shore bombardment through 14 November 1952; San Diego sonar-school plus annual WestPac deployments 1952-57 including oceanographic survey tests in the Marianas and Marshalls; entered San Francisco Naval Shipyard 10 September 1957 for overhaul then reserve; decommissioned 16 August 1958 at San Diego but remained 'in service' as an antisubmarine training ship of the Selected Reserve Forces at Long Beach; activated summer 1961, recommissioned 15 December 1961, homeport Pearl Harbor, Subic Bay operations training and patrolling with South Vietnamese Navy units 18 March - 21 May 1962; returned Long Beach 17 July 1962 and placed 'in service, in reserve' 1 August 1962 as a Naval Reserve training ship, continuing into 1969. One battle star World War II, four Korean service. Namesake: Ens. Benjamin Raymond Marsh, Jr., USNR, of Lansing, Mich. - killed aboard USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1943-1969
- Population
- Defoe Shipbuilding construction trades (Bay City, 1943); USN crew 1944-1973 (design complement 186); Selected Reserve/NRT trainee crews, Long Beach 1958-1969
- Limitations
- DANFS documents construction, specifications, and service history - not materials or asbestos content. Entry was written circa 1969, so post-1969 disposition (strike 1973, sale 1974) is not covered. Live NHHC page returns 404 on all patterns tried - verbatim mirror transcription cited; hazegray.org does not resolve from this machine, so the losthistory.net mirror of the hazegray transcription is used.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-01
-
[3]NavSource Online Destroyer Escort Photo Archive, USS Marsh (DE-699) page (volunteer archive; lead-level): building/operational data block, namesake biography detail, captioned USN photographs (Wayback capture 2024-11-07 - navsource.org does not resolve from this machine) [other_primary]
- Locator
- NavSource DE-699 page - 'Building and Operational Data' block; captions 0669901-0669910, 0307207
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Photo-archive chronology corroborating and extending DANFS: keel laid 23 June 1943 Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City; launched/christened 25 September 1943; commissioned 12 January 1944; decommissioned 15 August 1958 and placed 'In Service' as NRT ship, 12th Naval District, Long Beach; recommissioned 15 December 1961 (Berlin Crisis), homeport Pearl Harbor; decommissioned 1 August 1962 back 'In Service' at Long Beach; taken 'Out of Service' and struck from the NVR 15 April 1973 'after 29 years and 3 months of service'; sold for scrapping 20 February 1974. Photo captions add: 25 September 1943 sideways launch into the Saginaw River at Defoe; 31 May 1944 Atlantic - alongside USS Tulagi (CVE-72) taking on 24,975 gallons of Navy Special fuel oil, photographed from USS Mission Bay (CVE-59), in company with escorts Marsh, Currier (DE-700), Tatum (DE-789), Haines (DE-792), Runels (DE-793), Hollis (DE-794) and carrier Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) (USN photo 80-G-364378); undated ~1946-47 photo in Asian waters; namesake detail incl. posthumous Purple Heart (General Order #186, 21 January 1943).
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1943-1974
- Population
- USN crew incl. 1944 Atlantic convoy escort group; NRT reservists 1958-1969
- Limitations
- Volunteer-maintained photo archive - lead-level, unverified against USN/NHHC/NARA originals. The 15 August 1958 decommissioning conflicts with DANFS's 16 August by one day (carried in gaps). 'Out of service/struck' combines the strike and in-service-status termination; NavalCoverMuseum's 'placed out of service 8 September 1969' likely marks the end of NRT duty (BGSU agrees NRT service 'until 1969') - both framings carried in gaps. Nothing on materials aboard.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-02
-
[4]Bowling Green State University, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, vessel registry entry DE-0699 (USS MARSH) - university maritime archive holding the Defoe Shipbuilding records [other_primary]
- Locator
- BGSU HCGL item 434651 - registry block, 'Rebuilts' and 'Disposition' fields
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- HCGL registry record for this hull: Defoe yard hull number 00272; steel hull, 306.0 x 36.0 x 13.5 ft; builder Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, MI, built 1943; owner U.S. Navy 1944-1973. Rebuild entry: 'Converted to ship-to-shore power generator, September-October 1945' - corroborating the DANFS mobile-power-unit conversion. History summary: commissioned 12 January 1944; Pacific theater to war's end; multiple Korean deployments 1950-1952; decommissioned and placed as Naval Reserve training ship at Long Beach 1958; recommissioned December 1961; back to Long Beach 1962; NRT service 'until 1969'; struck from Naval Register 1973; sold for scrap 1974.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1943-1974
- Population
- Defoe yard workforce (hull 272), 1943
- Limitations
- Registry-style summary (source listed as HCGL internal) - corroborates dates and adds the yard hull number, but contains no materials or asbestos information and no citations; 'retired 1962' compresses the in-service/in-reserve status change DANFS describes.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-03
-
[5]Buckley-class TE design data (DANFS spec block; Atlas class profile class-f/buckley-class.class.json drawing on BuShips 'Ships' Data, U.S. Naval Vessels' Vol. 1, Jan 1945 + navypedia us_de_te block map) [other_primary]
- Locator
- class-f/buckley-class.class.json propulsion_summary + member row DE-699 + ev-buckley-class-01/02 (SDB1945v1 pp. 234-235; navypedia us_de_te)
- Finding type
- asbestos_application
- Finding
- Era/design inference for a turbo-electric escort built at Defoe/Bay City in 1943: the Buckley TE plant - BuShips design groups 2-3, two 'D' express-type boilers at 435 psi/750F superheat feeding GE turbo-electric machinery at 12,000 shp, 2 shafts, ~23.6 kt - is a full superheated-steam plant, one of only two DE designs so equipped (with the Butler WGT class), so the heavy steam-ship asbestos categories apply at design level: boiler and fireroom insulation, steam-line lagging between fireroom and turbo-generators, turbine lagging, valve/flange gaskets, machinery packing, fireproofing, and deck coverings. Per navypedia's boiler-block map, the Defoe-built DE693-705 block (incl. DE-699) carried Combustion Engineering boilers. The September-October 1945 mobile-power-unit conversion added ship-to-shore generating equipment at Pearl Harbor - additional insulated electrical/steam-adjacent equipment is plausible but its scope and materials are undocumented.
- Verification
- inferred
- Role
- supporting
- Documentation level
- class_or_era
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1943-44 (construction); 1945, 1957 (yard events); 1944-1973 (service)
- Population
- Defoe construction trades 1943; USN engineering/fire-room crew 1944-1973; yard workers at the 1945 Pearl Harbor conversion and 1957 Hunters Point overhaul
- Limitations
- Class/era inference only - not a ship-specific finding; no member-level asbestos record exists for this hull. The boiler-manufacturer attribution is navypedia-sourced and unverified against contract documents; the power-unit conversion's material scope is undocumented. Establishes no quantities, no locations, and no exposure for any individual.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-04
-
[6]CourtListener API v4 sweep (opinion index type=o; RECAP docket index type=r) for exact name 'USS Marsh' and hull number 'DE-699' via cl-auth-search.py (authenticated, fleet-paced) [court_record]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-marsh-de699-05 through -08
- Finding type
- litigation_documented
- Finding
- CourtListener sweep: exact-name query '"USS Marsh"' (type=o) returned 0 results - no opinion naming this vessel located. Hull-number query '"DE-699"' (type=o) returned 3 hits, all string collisions on review - State v. Dinur (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2012, DWI dismissal), Russell v. United States (D.C. App. 1991, criminal appeal), and Intel Corp. v. Silicon Storage Technology (D. Del. 1998, patent) - none vessel-, Navy-, or asbestos-related ('DE 699'/'de 699' fragments in case text). RECAP-docket search '"USS Marsh"' (type=r) returned 0 results - no docket naming the vessel. No qualifying asbestos litigation naming this hull located.
- Verification
- partial
- Role
- context
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 2026-09-29
- Limitations
- Opinion index swept for both name and hull number; docket index swept for the exact name. The 'DE-699' RECAP-docket query returned the fleet-wide pacing 'momentarily spent' status at drafting; final status in search_ledger (sl-uss-marsh-de699-08). The sweep does not cover state-court records, trust claims, or non-U.S. jurisdictions. 'Marsh' is a common surname with heavy collision surface (e.g., Marsh v. Alabama line of cases) - any future hit needs collision classification rather than automatic attribution.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-05
-
[7]Batch-4477 search ledger (this record): NHHC DANFS + hazegray/losthistory/HyperWar mirrors, NVR, NavSource, BGSU Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Atlas shipyard dataset, CourtListener API v4, NARA catalog [other_primary]
- Locator
- search_ledger rows sl-uss-marsh-de699-01 through -10
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- No qualifying ship-specific asbestos record located: no ACM survey, abatement contract, hazmat disclosure, material-condition report, or docketed case naming this hull was found in the public sources searched. The hull had no preservation era - sold for scrapping 20 February 1974 after strike 15 April 1973 - so no museum or memorial disclosure can exist. The only public asbestos claims about this hull are law-firm marketing pages (asbestos-ships.com) asserting unsourced, boilerplate 'tremendous amounts' of asbestos - excluded per source rules and logged in the report, not evidence.
- Verification
- verified
- Role
- negative_finding
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 2026-09-29
- Limitations
- Absence of a located public record does not prove absence of asbestos aboard - a 1943 steam-plant hull with documented yard periods would have carried era-standard materials, which is why the class/era inference row exists. Does not establish or defeat any claim of exposure or legal eligibility. Scrapping-era records (buyer, dismantling) are not located in public sources.
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-06
-
[8]Archival leads for hull-level material documentation not yet retrieved: (1) BGSU Historical Collections of the Great Lakes Defoe Shipbuilding Company holdings (finding-aid agent 525: six+ collections incl. Defoe-Navy correspondence, shipyard layout and building schedules, photo series for sister hulls e.g. USS Cronin DE-704, and 'The Defoe Rollover' employee periodical 1942-44); (2) NARA RG 19 BuShips contract specifications/ships' data for DE-699 and RG 24 deck logs (1944-1973) covering the 1945 power-unit conversion and both Korea deployments; (3) San Francisco Naval Shipyard (Hunters Point) work records for the September 1957 overhaul; (4) Pearl Harbor work records for the September-October 1945 mobile-power-unit conversion; (5) Navy/MARAD disposal-sale file for the 20 February 1974 scrapping sale [other_primary]
- Locator
- BGSU finding-aid agent 525; NARA RG 19/RG 24 series (undigitized); SF Naval Shipyard and Pearl Harbor work records; Navy disposal-sale records
- Finding type
- historical_record
- Finding
- Primary holdings likely to contain hull-level material information exist but were not pulled: BGSU HCGL's Defoe Shipbuilding collections are the builder-yard paper record for the hull's construction (yard hull 00272); NARA RG 19/RG 24 hold the contract specifications and the full deck-log run including the 1957 Hunters Point overhaul period; the 1974 disposal-sale file would name the scrapping buyer. None are digitized in public sources.
- Verification
- unverified
- Role
- archival_lead
- Documentation level
- ship_specific
- Accessed
- 2026-09-29
- Study period
- 1943-1974 (records); 2026 (lead status)
- Limitations
- Leads only - none of these holdings were retrieved or digitized; contents unknown. They establish nothing about materials aboard. NARA catalog returns an SPA shell to programmatic fetches (standing limitation).
- Atlas source
- true
- Evidence ID
- ev-uss-marsh-de699-07